New Policy Will Make It Tough For Many High Schools To Teach CPR

A few years back, because of a job I had at the time, I was able to get CPR certified at their expense. It was a relatively quick and easy process, and I felt pretty good about the fact that I knew a little bit of valuable information on how to save someone's life.

But a new policy from the American Heart Association might make it difficult for some high schools to continue teaching their students the life-saving skill. Back in 2017, the AHA integrated some new technology into the basic training course. The new tech helps folks more accurately gauge if they are performing the procedure correctly.

Sally Taylor, a spokesperson for the AHA explains:

Up to this point, it has been a very subjective measurement. Are you going the right rate, are you going the right depth? Now, with these feedback devices, they tell you if you're going the right rate or depth.

So when the new policy goes into effect on January 31st of 2019, schools everywhere, including many right here in Maine, will have obsolete CPR dummies. And to replace those comes at a staggering cost. Speaking to News Center Maine, Hampden Academy school nurse Barbara Parent said,

For schools, our budgets are so tight now that even if I tried to fit it in, there is no way it would've made it by the budget committee.

For instance, she says Hampden Academy uses 35 devices in their course. A quick search on Amazon.com shows that the dummies average well over $200 a piece. It will remain to be seen what schools choose to do about the change.